Austin Proper Hotel & Residences is ramping up for its part in redevelopment of the former site of Austin's Green Water Treatment Plant downtown. California’s Kor Group purchased land at East Cesar Chavez and San Antonio streets in January with plans to build the hotel and condo tower, originally scheduled to start in spring of this year.
While the project has yet to break ground, buyers are lining up to purchase the its residences and penthouses in advance. One- to three-bedroom residences in the 921- to 2,608-square feet-square-foot range are priced from $600,000 to $3,000,000; 3,425- to 6,789-square-foot penthouses cost $3,400,000-$8,000,000.
Swift sales might have something to do with the fact that the building’s interiors will be designed by internationally acclaimed style icon Kelly Wearstler, who has been named as one of Architectural Digest’s Top 100 architects and interior designers, among other honors.
New York-based Handel Architects will oversee design for the 33-story, 500,000 square-building. The hotel will have 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space, retail, and dining managed by McGuire Moorman Hospitality, a local group that manages numerous well-know restaurants, including Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue, Elizabeth Street Cafe, Clark’s Oyster Bar, the Josephine House, and Jeffrey’s Restaurant & Bar.
Trammell Crow Company will handle development of the building. The company is also the developer for GreenWater—the former home of Austin’s green water treatment plant, now being redeveloped as part of the city’s larger Seaholm area. The project will result in 1.7 million square feet of mixed-use space, including Class A office space (Google has been secured as the anchor tenant), residential towers, ground floor retail and restaurants, Shoal Creek restoration, and the Second Street Bridge, which connects the Austin Public Library and the rest of the Seaholm District.
Kor also recently partnered with Goldman Sachs as a capital partner on Austin Proper. Having received its site has received its site development permit, the project is now slated to begin by the end of September. The 243-room hotel is expected to open in 2018.